Life in Uig

The Report on the Social Conditions of the People of Lewis (1902) by the Crofters Commission gives a detailed account of the traditional Lewis blackhouse, which agitated the minds of reformers from Sir James Matheson onward, and the measures taken from about 1880 to improve it, particularly with regard to sanitation.

“When I was born, and for the period of 23 years after, the whole inhabitants of the parish were sunk in dark ignorance of God. There was not so much as a form of Godliness in the whole place. Wickedness of all descriptions committed in broad daylight “

George Gillies, residing at Grista [Erista], and John Maclean, residing at Fimisgarry [Timsgarry], in the parish of Uig and Island of Lewis, accused of having broken into the parish church of Uig, and stolen therefrom a waterproof coat, some carpenters’ tools, and a pane of glass, pleaded not guilty.

The Rev Angus Maciver was the son of Angus Maciver “An Ceistear” (the Catechist), born at Reef in 1799. The family lived at Tobson on Great Bernera from 1835 to 1853. This extract from The Life of a Lewis Catechist, published in the Stornoway Gazette in 1971-2, is Rev Maciver’s memory of meeting-house nights.

There had evidently been a small school at Mangersta in the 1820s and in the neighbouring village of Carnish in the 1840s, but when both those townships were turned into farms there was no population requiring a school, until 1911.

receipt from Cyril Goodge (petrol and provisions at Miavaig) for the Free Presbyterian Manse, date 13 September 1939 – the day after the induction of Rev John Angus Macdonald as FP minister in Uig, so presumably he is setting out his kitchen. It’s also just a few days after the start of the war. Rationing began in January 1940.

In the winter of 1961, the Commanding Officer of RAF Aird Uig and twenty-six of his officers and men were stranded in Stornoway while returning from the first night of the charity concert organised by the camp in the Town Hall.

From the Stornoway Gazette, 7 July 1959: The Commanding Officer of the R.A.F. station at Aird Uig has expressed gratitude to gamekeeper Donald Morrison of Mangersta, who on Tuesday found an airman who had been missing from the station. The man was Senior Aircraftsman Thomas Douglas, who was on Wednesday reported to be “quite alright” [...]

Thanks to Donald John Macleod, Enaclete and Bridge of Don, for these memories of Enaclete during the 1940s. As a boy in Enaclete I heard many stories about the war, including the Onslow action, being discussed by Calum Iain Smith and the worthies who used to congregate at night for a ceilidh at Norman Macdonald’s [...]

[singlepic=1121,797] Our wedding collection is growing slowly but surely, and new in today are 1960s wedding telegrams and some lovely photos. Most will be on display in the tearoom within a week or two but meanwhile… Mrs and Mrs Kenny Maclennan, 15 Kneep (Coinneach a’ Loin and Agnes Smith, Lochcroistean – above) were married 22 [...]

[singlepic=1119,827] From the Stornoway Gazette supplement, 18 December 1959. Wedding bells have been ringing in Mangersta for the past year. Cupid started at one end of the village leaving a spate of marriages in his trail. The most recent of these was solemnised in the East Church, Inverness, on the 10th November when Mary Morrison, [...]

[singlepic=1084] CE Uig hosted a photographer earlier this month, Gawaine Meechan, who was taking photos of as many as would stand still. Warm thanks to Gawaine for his hard work, and to all who sat for him; there are more than these, and he will be back in the early summer. The photos will add [...]

There is a set of spectacular photos of the marine world under St Kilda, over on the new Ionad Hiort website. Many thanks to the photographer Paul Kay. Click on the fish to see more. St Kilda has been inscribed as a World Heritage Site under both natural and cultural criteria; in 2004 the WHS [...]

This is the final section of an interesting and detailed piece on the Pygmies Isle (first mentioned by Dean Monro in 1549 as having been inhabited by “little people”) near the Butt of Lewis , published by WC Mackenzie in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquities of Scotland, 13 March 1905 (vol XXXIX, p257). It’s [...]

[singlepic=1068,475,left] These new-to-us pictures come from the albums of the late Roberta Maclennan, whose brother Duncan was the doctor in Uig during WW2 – though the pictures date from 1926, and were taken in Glen Valtos, before the quarrying started there. Many thanks to John J Maclennan for providing them, and others. [singlepic=1069,336] Share